Oak

[goose63]

how well will 1 inch red or white boards air dry? thanks guys :new_year:

[beenthere]

They will air dry just fine, down to whatever moisture content the air will permit given relative humidity.

How well do you want it?

[goose63]

They will air dry just fine, down to whatever moisture content the air will permit given relative humidity.

How well do you want it?

will thy stay nice and flat or do I need to hold them down with a lot of weight ?

[beenthere]

You should do a good job of stickering the pile, with stickers about 18" apart and straight aligned over supporting bunkers.
Yes to weight, and it may just be a few layers of the lower grade boards that you put on top along with a weather protective cover.

Have you air dried before?

There are good examples of air drying stacks of lumber on the forum. Have you run across any of these in your reading?

Tell us more about what you have to dry and what your time frame is as well as the plans for the lumber.

[WDH]

It dries fine, just slower than other woods. 

[goose63]

beenthere I am just getting started hope to have my woodland in March . I have some wood workers that have asked a bought air drying and cutting for them thank you

[SawyerBrown]

I had a guy who sells a lot of rough-sawn oak up here tell me that:
1) Most of his customers PREFER air-dried over kiln-dried, and
2) He stands the freshly-sawn boards on end for 3 days before he stacks it -- eliminates sticker stain. 

Opinions?

[Ianab]

Opinions?

1 - Air dried wood is better for some things, like steam bending. So he may have a niche market there as the "go to" guy for air dried wood.

2 - It's possible to dry boards vertically, but if you just leave them leaning on something they may not dry straight. You can counter this by moving the boards frequently until the are dry, but that's a lot of labour. By standing them for 3 days he may be getting the surface dry enough to reduce the chances of stain, but the core wont have dried enough to "set" the board in a bow. Then he can move them to a stickered stack to complete the drying with less risk of stain.

It's one of those "crazy" ideas that actually has some sound idea behind it. Down side would be the extra board handling needed, but if it's a cheap way to get stain free premium air dried boards that he has a good market for, then who are we to argue?  ;)

Ian

[GeneWengert-WoodDoc]

So called end-racking was and is practiced in tropical countries where the surface needs to dry quickly and then the lumber is stacked for shipping.  As mentioned, warp is an issue, but many tropical species have such straight grain, that warp is rare.

I have never seen end racking in the USA except at Colonial Williamsburg.

In most of the USA, the final air dried MC before kiln drying is around 25% to 30% MC.  The lumber can be dried lower (12% MC if drying is really long), but the cost and damage from rain is excessive.

Cover you oak piles with a roof to shed moisture and prevent rapid drying from sunlight. 

Many good ideas are in AIR DRYING OF LUMBER by the US Forest Service.  It is on-line at many sites.

With oak, we always are concerned about drying too fast, as that results in checks, especially above 50% MC.  Some folks, especially with 6/4 and thicker, will use plastic burlap fabric on one side of the stack to slow air flow and avoid fast drying.

For interior use, the lumber should be at about 7% MC.  This will avoid shrinkage in use (mostly).  So, after air drying, some additional drying is required.  This can be in a kiln (fast, kills insects) or in an attic or warm shop.

[Brad_S.]

With oak, we always are concerned about drying too fast, as that results in checks, especially above 50% MC.  Some folks, especially with 6/4 and thicker, will use plastic burlap fabric on one side of the stack to slow air flow and avoid fast drying.

I have found this to be especially true with white oak. It doesn't take much air flow at all to cause small surface checks on fresh cut WO.